{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/61e4c2bae514060014220b5b/67b9c134b628e470d37339f1?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"Geraldine Lavelle - \"When the apple is ready it will fall\"","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/61e4c2bae514060014220b5b/1740226194313-338d9e8b-2d67-4e9a-a532-2f1a5eaf665a.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>This weeks guest is another amazing and inspiring person. Geraldine Lavelle’s life changed “in a heartbeat”. That was in October 2013 when she was left paralysed from the chest down following a collision with a lorry.</p><p><br></p><p>The Mayo native had become accustomed to enjoying an early-morning cycle before work, until the accident cycling on the Longford-Mullingar road changed life for the then 27-year-old. The collision left Geraldine, a graduate of NUI Galway where she gained a first-class master's degree in neuroscience, with life changing injuries.</p><p><br></p><p>Since then, Geraldine has spent over ten years in an institution and has been become a very well known and highly respected disability rights campaigner. Her victory eventually came to pass recently when the HSE <strong>finally</strong> provided her with the 56 hours a week of care support she needs to live independently in a specially-adapted home of her own, like any other 30 something-year-old. </p><p><br></p><p>Geraldine Lavelle is an amazing woman, an author, writer, advocate and resilience speaker.  </p>","author_name":"Alan Clarke"}